Philadelphia Eagles: Players share the pain of the fans

PHILADELPHIA — Andy Reid said Monday what he was supposed to say before the Eagles handed a victory to the Lions.

Considering the youth of the team and its preoccupation with smartphones, the head coach probably should tweeted and retweeted the theme. This is the kind of group that needs brief, constant reminders.

“Be disciplined, be pros,” Brandon Boykin said of the message the head coach delivered during the team meeting. “There’s a lot of little petty things that we did in the (Lions) game that cost us. Just simple mistakes or penalties whether it’s a third down situation and we do something stupid and give them a first down. Just little things like that. We’ve definitely got to detail our work better, be a lot more disciplined and be ready after this bye week.”

“Just try to, you know, to man-up and take care of responsibility,” Eagles linebacker Jamar Chaney said. “You just can’t let that happen, what happened in the game yesterday.”

The Eagles blew a 10-point lead in the last 5-minutes, 18-seconds of regulation and then rumpled the bed in overtime. In a season of strange but true Eagles scores, Jason Hanson sent the Birds into pre-bye shock with a 45-yard field goal elevating the Lions to a 26-23 victory.

Eagles fans aren’t taking this lying down. Eagles players don’t care for some of the sentiment expressed over social media. More on that later.

“They have a reason to be mad,” Boykin said. “We lost some pretty close games that we should have won. I think they expected us to win it and we did too. Coming back from this bye week we’re going to give it all we’ve got and definitely hope that they don’t quit on us and just continue to believe that we’re going to fight to the end.”

For now the Eagles are 3-3 with a two-game losing streak, a league-leading 17 turnovers and a lot of bad film for the opposition to feast its eyes upon.

L l lDon’t look now but the offensive line that used to be one of the strengths of the Eagles looks like it needs to be blown up.

Center Dallas Reynolds is having issues with snaps to quarterback Michael Vick.

Left tackle Demetress Bell is on pace for almost 18 penalties.

Even right tackle Todd Herremans isn’t his old self, as evidenced by the crippling sack he gave up on the first snap of overtime.

Pro Bowl left tackle Jason Peters, on the non-football injury list after multiple surgeries for a torn Achilles’ tendon, is looking a lot more appealing as the weeks roll on.

Peters is eligible to practice with the Eagles when they come back from their bye. The Eagles basically have a three-week window from the time he starts practicing to put him on the 53-man roster or shelve him for the year on injured reserve.

“He’s getting better,” Reid said. “He’s made progress. He’s moving around now outside the pool and the treadmill where we reduce the body weight of the players. He’s able to move around and do some agility things and push it a little bit. Not to the extent where he’s near being cleared yet.”

Peters told me he’s taking the rehab one day at a time and that he believes he will play this season.

Reid’s decision is whether Peters at possibly 75 percent is better than 100 percent of what the Eagles have now at tackle.

“There’s a chance,” Reid said. “We’ve got to see here. The next few weeks we’ll be able to tell.”

The in-house options at left tackle would be King Dunlap, who the Eagles already tried there and rookie Dennis Kelly, the 6-8, 321-pound rookie fifth-round pick out of Purdue.

L l lNOTES: Defensive tackle Mike Patterson had his skull examined and is awaiting word from the neurosurgeon. Patterson didn’t sound as optimistic about getting back on the field as in weeks past … Eagles defensive end Vinny Curry, the rookie second-round pick, might get a chance to play after the bye. Curry has been scratched every week. Reid said the defensive line held without a sack the last three games would be evaluated along with the players, including Curry. The Eagles drafted Curry primarily because they liked his burst off the edge and relentlessness; i.e. high motor … Look for the Eagles to add a safety during the bye week as Nate Allen’s hamstring mends. Though Allen isn’t expected to miss any time, it’s obvious the Eagles aren’t enthusiastic about David Sims and that Colt McCoy is a special teams player. Brandon Hughes is strictly a tweener.